Ben F. on Nostr: Oscar Peterson by Jean-Pierre Jackson. For years I've been trying to get my hands on ...

Oscar Peterson by Jean-Pierre Jackson. For years I've been trying to get my hands on Oscar Peterson's autobiography "A Jazz Odyssey", but it's long out of print and as a consequence unreasonably expensive to buy. I got this cheap little book as the best available substitute. On the plus side, it's a short read, Jackson clearly knows Peterson's life and discography well, and it's well written and clear. On the minus side, it feels like an expanded Wikipedia entry, really skimming through the different parts of his life with a heavy focus on Peterson's early years and putting forward the thesis that post-1972, nothing major came out of Peterson's discography. Since the greatest album by Oscar Peterson (according to me) is the 1981 Nigerian Marketplace, I obviously can't agree with that assertion. Anyway, long story short, I enjoyed reading this, learned a few things, bought an album on the basis of it, and I'm still going to be looking for an affordable copy of A Jazz Odyssey... #book #music #biography #french